Who is the Cake Mama?

Monday, July 22, 2013

Ali celebrated her third birthday this weekend; just days after she became a big sister!! This wonderful princess deserved a very special cake!!!

The bottom tier of the cake is a chocolate cake with Oreos, fudge and buttercream fillings. The top tier is a yellow cake with raspberry buttercream frosting. I was told that she was having a princess themed party and that Princess Alicia wanted a pink cake. I could do that! Pink it was. Lots of pink. And purple. And I threw in a little yellow/orange and green, just to liven it up a little.

I hope that Princess Ali had a wonderful birthday celebration! We were so happy we got to congratulate the big sister and celebrate with her.

Monday, July 15, 2013

I was SUPER excited to do this cake for little Abie - who's not so little anymore! I did a cake for her 2nd birthday AND her 3rd and now her 4th!!! She wanted an Olivia cake, and I've been told that she is a fan of Olivia the soccer player! Luckily for me, Olivia plays soccer and there's proof of it online.

If you don't know, Olivia is a little pig who has the tendency to wear EVERYONE out. She's a cute character and I believe she's a star of many books and even cartoons. My Josie gets a kick out of her.

So here's an Olivia cake for big-girl Abie, who also plays soccer.

I'm actually super proud of the shirt which I made out of strips of colored gumpaste. All of Olivia is made out of gum paste. I used edible food marker and some edible luster dust for the shading.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Back in college, I worked as a camp counselor at a camp in Hartland, WI called Camp Whitcomb/Mason. It's affiliated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. I still can't believe it was something that I did and I even went back for a second year because I loved it so much. The kids were great. Challenging? Absolutely. But they were great. The rest of the staff was a hoot! I've honestly made some wonderful life-long friends and that place will always have a special place in my heart. The beauty in that land...gosh, there are no words.

Anyway, it's there that I met Erwin. Well, her real name is Erin, but her camp name was Erwin. She chose that name because a priest at a church she went to when she was a kid called her Erwin and the name just stuck. I was Walleye. Don't ask.

Anyway, Erwin was an interesting character when I first met her. She immediately had friends and made herself at home with the camp staff. She'd sometimes give me a hard time and I'd laugh it off and ignore it the best I could. You know, I'd have a sunburn on my shoulders and she'd come over and smack them. Or, I'd be standing talking to a fellow counselor and she'd come up behind me and knock my knees out and cause me to collapse. She was a real jokester, that Erwin. She'd have all of the kids seated at her table with her at mealtime show me their half-eaten food in their mouths. Awesome.

Well, I was done being the "victim" and started writing her "wrong-doings" down and sharing them with the rest of the camp staff. And then things got fun. Or should I say, funny. We still laugh about the ridiculousness of Erwin's teasing. One of my favorite "Erwinism" was from a night where we had a camp-out in Thompson Woods. Waaaaa-aaaaay out the middle of a forest. We literally had tents put together with band-aids because no one wanted to walk aaaaaalllllll of the way back to get the necessary items. Anyway, this was a night where the campers were crabby, it was hot and we were being eaten alive by mosquitos. Erwin and I happened to be the last two awake and I was on fire duty, trying desperately to get the fire to go out. The only light in the middle of the forest was coming from the red coals that I was actively poking. And then Erwin whispers to me, "Walleye, that's what you'll be doing in hell." I nearly died from laughter.

Anyway, it was because of Erwin that I laughed as much as I did at camp. And all of these years later, I consider her one of my dearest friends.

Here's Erwin and Walleye.

One of my favorites of Erwin. Did she fall asleep and someone wrote on her forehead? I don't remember.

Soooooooo, when Erin's husband emailed me requesting that I make a cake for Erin's birthday, I was super excited to do this! She was evidently very specific about the kind of cake she wanted and I was super excited to oblige because it sounded delicious.

I made a lemon poppyseed cake with homemade strawberry curd, sliced strawberries and cream cheese filling and frosting. The scraps tasted amazing. I decorated it with a fun piping technique I found on Pinterest.

Here's a picture taken by Erin's sister of the inside of the cake. Mmmmmmm!